When Joshua Merriam was born on 27 February 1708, in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, his father, John Meriam, was 45 and his mother, Mary Wheeler, was 34. He married Susanna Gleason on 12 November 1733, in Oxford, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 6 daughters. He died on 7 June 1784, in Oxford, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 76.
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Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by Congress. Colonies declare independence.
"""At the end of the Second Continental Congress the 13 colonies came together to petition independence from King George III. With no opposing votes, the Declaration of Independence was drafted and ready for all delegates to sign on the Fourth of July 1776. While many think the Declaration was to tell the King that they were becoming independent, its true purpose was to be a formal explanation of why the Congress voted together to declare their independence from Britain. The Declaration also is home to one of the best-known sentences in the English language, stating, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."""""""
English: habitational name from an unidentified place called Meryham, apparently in east Sussex but now lost. The placename may derive from Old English myrig ‘merry, pleasant’ + hām ‘village, homestead’ or hamm ‘water meadow’.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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